6.11 Love in Light and Darkness

Note: This is crazy long, but I just couldn't find any way to break it up that wasn't clunky. It was just a very busy day!

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Love Day dawned in an inauspicious manner.



Riddle was itchy, and he thought it was time Dylan did something about it.



Considering that the itches were fleas, Dylan had to decontaminate both of them.



Xia wasn't there that morning. He had risen before dawn and was already at Tintagel Keep.



Love Day was a big day for her, but not for the usual reasons. She was scheduled for an experimental flight test. The outcome could make or break her career.

"All right," she said to her copilot, Mitchell Bachelor. "Here goes everything. Let's set this plane on fire!"

"So, do you and Andria have anything special planned?" Sky asked her eldest son over breakfast.

"Of course I planned something," Dylan replied. "It's Love Day. I thought we'd take a romantic balloon ride at the festival."

"I was thinking of something really special," Sky said. "You and Andria have been seeing each other for a very long time. What's holding you back?"

"Everything that didn't hold you back," Dylan snapped. "The last thing I need is romantic advice from you."

"Wow," Sky said, stung. "I know I didn't always think ahead, but I think my kids turned out all right."



Dylan sighed. "I'm sorry Mama. It's just that we view our relationships very differently."

"I can see that," Sky said.

Dylan offered an awkward smile. "I have to go pick up Andria," he said.

The sky was clear and blue. The sun was bright. It was hard to imagine a more perfect Love Day.



Dylan and Andria didn't waste any time.

Abby had called and left a message for Dion, proposing that they go out to celebrate Love Day in the evening. Dion hadn't called back yet. That was all right, though. She had landed the part that Nemo Hodgins promised her, and that had led to a much bigger part in a different production.

Her career was finally taking off. It was hard for her to complain about the huge stack of scripts she needed to learn.

Sawyer, on the other hand, would rather read scientific journals. He was willing to humor his family and read them at the park.



Sky ran into Forest. As usual, he quizzed her on any unusual behavior or break ins at her house. She assured him everything was fine.

Then Xia burst onto the scene.



"Take a look, baby!" she cried. "You're looking at Avalon Island's newest astronaut! Woot! Woot! Woot!"

"Really!" Sky exclaimed. "That's fantastic!"

Xia swept her off her feet, literally. "We better make this moment count. Who knows when they'll shoot me into space!"



She didn't give Sky a chance to protest. Not that Sky would ever protest.

"Would you do me he honor of accompanying me on a little balloon ride?" Dylan suggested. "I rented it it out for an hour just for us."

"Wow!" Andria said. "I've never been up flying!"



"Never? We need to travel together," Dylan said. "Up we go!"



"Wow! This is beautiful! You can see so far!"



Dylan reached down into a cabinet at the base of the basket. "I brought a little something to mark the occasion."



POP!



"Champagne! I should have expected you to so something dashing."



"To many years together."





"Mmmm. I love the bubbles. They tickle."



"Now, my dearest, let's see where this balloon will take us."

"You mean we don't have to stay at the festival?"

"Absolutely not! We just have to bring it back in an hour."

"Wow! Then let's explore!"

Xia, meanwhile, decided to learn how many hot dogs her stomach could hold.

When Hunter saw her entering an eating contest, he couldn't help but try it himself.

Xia won. Hunter nearly made himself sick.

"The prize is more hot dogs," Xia told Sky afterward. "I never want to see another hot dog for the rest of my life."

Abby's Love Day was lonely and getting lonelier. Dion still hadn't called back, and the sun was getting low.

If there were a problem, he'd tell her, right?

"Wow...." Andria breathed. "It's breathtaking."

"I was hoping it would be," Dylan said.

He held her hand while she looked all around her. They were, for all intents and purposes, completely alone, above a small cove on a corner of the island.

That was exactly what Dylan had intended.



"Andria," he began, sinking to one knee.



Andria reached forward to pull him up. "Dylan? Are you all right?"



"I've never been better," Dylan replied. He pulled something out of his pocket.



"Dylan! Is that--?"





"Andria, my lady love, you've been patient enough with me to be the noblest woman on the face of the Simearth. If you will allow me, I wish nothing more than to spend the rest of our lives making it worth your while. Please be my wife."

"Dylan! I-- I don't know what to say!"

"Yes, I hope," Dylan replied. "You've come this far. It seems premature to abandon our affair just when it could be most worthwhile."

"Could you be any more over the top? Of course I'll marry you!"



"You may be a crazy man, but I love you anyway."



They dallied too long on the balloon ride, and Dylan had to pay a steep fee for returning late. And they almost missed the point of the party. They came dashing, hand-in-hand, back to the park just in time to see Xia blow out her candles.



"Here's to being the most embarrassing old lady you ever met!"



"I gotta tell you, this has been one hell of a day!"



"Here we go!"



[It's not my fault! I had a series of crashes here and replayed this birthday about three times. I have NO PICTURES after transition! I don't know why! Xia's new look is pretty much exactly like her old look, though.]

As everyone cheered for her mum's birthday, Abby looked up to the park entrance and saw the one face she'd been most hoping for.

"Dion!" she cried. "I was starting to worry! I hope everything's all right!"

Something in his eyes stopped her cold. "Dion?"

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" he shouted. "You didn't even try to keep it secret!"

"Oh no," Abby gasped. "No! No! No! Dion, it's not like that. I didn't mean--"



"Are you going to try tell me that you're NOT woohooing with your boss? Do you think I'm that stupid?"

"It wasn't supposed to be--"

Dion stared at her. Abby trailed off, unable to find words.



"Please, go on," Dion snarled. "I'd love to know how you plan to finish that sentence. What was it supposed to be, and what do you think it looks like? What can you possibly say that makes this all right?"



"I'm sorry," she whispered. "It wasn't supposed to hurt you."



"You know where I found out? A gossip mag at the grocery store."

Abby didn't think she could be more shocked, but she was wrong. "They wrote about me?"

"Yeah. All publicity is good publicity, right?"

"Dion, please..."

"You disgust me. I never want to see you again."



Abby watched him walk away, unable even to cry. Then, mechanically, she picked up a slice of cake and sat down with her family. The cake tasted like sawdust.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Andria asked. "He looked kind of upset. Everything all right?"

"Yeah," Abby said. "He was kind of upset." She didn't elaborate.

"He should have stayed for cake!" Xia declared. "Everything is better with cake!"



Dylan caught Abby's arm as he was cleaning up. "You all right?" he asked. "You want to talk about it?"

"Not yet?" Abby choked out.

"Come on!" Xia called. "You don't want to miss the best part! Dylan, you're on fire duty. I think I'm too buzzed to be safe."

Dylan chuckled and grabbed the lighter.

"To many, many more years making fools of ourselves," Xia shouted over the sound of the rocket.



"The very best kind of fools!"







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This post took me like a week to write :-p.

I have to say that the hot air balloon was the glitchiest piece of Sims premium content I've ever played with. Also, it only rises about the height of a sim off the ground, which makes it look kind of dumb in the air. Good thing I didn't buy Aurora Skies for that thing. The champaign animation is absolutely adorable, but the proposal didn't even work until I used MasterController to remove Andria's Imaginary Friend occult status. I've noticed a few other interactions that don't work for occult for no good reason. Somebody inherited from the wrong object someplace ;-p.

Xia's LTW is now complete, which I believe finishes all the goals for Generation 5. It's all Gen 6 now, and of course Gen 7 in the not-so-distant future.

I don't feel like I've ever given Xia's Party Animal trait enough attention. It's flipping hard to throw a ton of parties in this game and get anything done. She's always trying to throw a party autonomously, and I cancel it out. I always wanted to have her get drunk and dance on a table in one of the bars, but when I tried that at The Garden Gnome pub, it told me the ceiling was too low. I guess you can only do it in a place with two-story ceilings :-p.

Imagine she did more partying.